Stage 5 meant a good race for the Yamaha bikes, with two Frenchmen (Casteu and Pain) finishing in the first 2 positions and Spaniard Pedrero on a KTM coming in 3rd.
Favorite Cyril Despres keeps on riding close behind and seemingly following a very careful strategy based on staying just minutes behind the overall leader and almost choosing his start position for the next stage each day.
The overall ranking sees Pain still in the lead, with Casteu second and Despres third, down on 6 minutes only. Honda's Pizzolito and Rodrigues moved to 11 and 12 after finishing 18th and 8th yesterday, respectively.
Navigation mistakes and a fuel pump problem caused Joan Barreda Bort (Husqvarna) to lose a lot of time during Stage 5 so he came in position 143, and this sending him in place 59 overall. There still are chances for a top position in the end for Barreda, provided his bike runs well: so far he showed great riding skills so maybe there's more to see from Husqvarna.
With only 5 out of a total of 14 stages, the 2012 Dakar is just unfolding, and there's way more ground to cover, so we should not worry too much because of these provisional rankings.
The overall ranking sees Pain still in the lead, with Casteu second and Despres third, down on 6 minutes only. Honda's Pizzolito and Rodrigues moved to 11 and 12 after finishing 18th and 8th yesterday, respectively.
Navigation mistakes and a fuel pump problem caused Joan Barreda Bort (Husqvarna) to lose a lot of time during Stage 5 so he came in position 143, and this sending him in place 59 overall. There still are chances for a top position in the end for Barreda, provided his bike runs well: so far he showed great riding skills so maybe there's more to see from Husqvarna.
With only 5 out of a total of 14 stages, the 2012 Dakar is just unfolding, and there's way more ground to cover, so we should not worry too much because of these provisional rankings.
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